Stalling

All spring I have felt like I was back in high school, playing in the state tourney against a Havre team that had us seriously out talented. They were big (6 ft 9 vs our tallest player at 6 ft 2) and fast (the guy I guarded was Jason Quick...one of the few times in my playing days when I didn't have a decided advantage in the speed department). Our game plan was simple, and the opposite of our normal fly up the court, press and shoot attack. We held the ball, ran patient offense and in general made the talented boys from Havre aggravated and annoyed. I remember trying to run around the wide bodied screen of the big (and wide...really wide) power forward named Lanning. I remember Andy Cripe and Mike Bauer keeping us in the game with spectacular plays after 50 seconds of passing and cutting. The worst part was that feeling of wanting to run downhill at full speed and having to hold yourself in check. As the point guard, I had to manage the tempo of that game and constantly slow myself and the team down when all I wanted to do was RUN!

The slow pace and start to this spring has felt the same. I look at the weather, the temps the water levels and the rain and all I want to do is run to the river on the off chance that the fish will be in and the sun will pop out of the dark clouds and drop one single ray to illuminate a 30 lb beast in the shallows. It hasn't happened...and we didn't beat Havre that night either. Sometimes you are forced to play slow and be patient...I have never been very good at it.